Hello! Generally I don’t really review products but figured since this one is on the pricey side and many people might want to know about it, might as well.
Pros:
First off, the monitor itself is very clear, the colors pop out (red seems to be the best contender, mainly because of the OLED), has many options to change with on board preset settings or you can use the “MSI gaming experience” app to do it (you can use custom colors/settings as well). The stand is pretty neat/sturdy, has a back panel to cover the ports to make it look cleaner (didn’t see it in instructions on where it goes, but figured it out just by popping it on the back, you might want to plug whatever you need in first then that, kinda hard to get more in with it on). Multiple ports and comes with USB-C which I personally don’t think I will use but is neat, just Display Port and USB “regular ports/b”. The most current firmware from this review was back in August that improves fan control for when/if it gets hot, performance and other things not too important but I think made a difference from first reviewers. You need to use the USB A to B in order to update the firmware, which tells you when doing it or in the support/FAQ. It comes with HDMI, display and USB C cables which is pretty awesome. I came from a Dell Ultrawide curved, same resolution but only 60Hz so going to 175Hz is pretty nice to me. As told in other reviews, the panel doesn’t tilt left or right which I’m not sure if that is a deal breaker but for me it’s right in front of me so I don’t really care. Coming from the Dell about 8 years you can see the quality of the panel and colors in what a difference it makes. It has a light bar under it which you can customize to different “patterns” or set even certain lights to different colors, pretty cool. The bezel isn’t super thin but with the tech in it and the panel, I guess that makes sense. $1000 is a lot of money but if you are thinking between one half the price or save up for this, I would suggest waiting a bit longer to get this, or similar price range/specs if you don’t like MSI.
Cons:
My top and most obnoxious con, which hopefully can be updated in a firmware update, is the “OLED panel protection” system, that after 4 hours, pops up on the screen and forces you to click cancel each time. After 3 cancels, the 4th literally forces you to do it, no more delays, so if you are in the middle of gaming or working, that’s it, you have to switch to your second monitor before that happens or if you don’t have one, you have to stare at the blank screen until it’s done. Hopefully this becomes optional in the future to prevent it until you power off your computer or all together. Of course the money you put into it, I can see it as a positive to help the person “refresh” the panel to prevent burn in since it’s OLED, but having you do it when you have no options is really crazy, more so for that price. It gives me an excuse to stretch or take a break I guess, but it should not force you to do it if you don’t want to. They have a “long” option which says could take an hour to finish. This is also forced after a few hundred or thousand hours of active use, so again, you would have to do it when it happens or try to remember a night before to do it (OSD shows both options of how long it’s been to give you an idea if needed) The second thing is the OSD, monitor menu, navigation button, which is a little.. “knob” above the power button, which seems a little flimsy for the price of the monitor. I suppose you are buying it for the technology rather than that but would be better to make it a little more secure, not sure if mine is loose or just how it is. Last thing would be the proper settings to get the best bang for your buck. It took me about the two weeks of me having it to figure out what I needed to use to make it run “smooth”. I have Intel and NIVIDIA hardware (sorry not sorry AMD), which I was not aware you have to turn on “adaptive sync” in the app/OSD, to turn on NVIDIAs GSync in NVIDIA control panel, which leads me to a sub negative but will get to that in a second. GSync at least for NVIDIA allows the monitor to run a bit better/“faster” to achieve smoother refresh and frame rates. It seems that when I updated the graphics drivers for it (I have a 4090, yes high end and expensive but that’s what I like and may not compare to most others), it caused the refresh rate and in turn frames run below 175Hz and very inconsistent. After a bit of troubleshooting, I actually found that having the gaming experience app installed, caused the inconsistency, which is very odd. After I uninstalled the app and restarted, it is now running at a smooth 175Hz/FPS, with GSync on. Maybe it is a bug with their software and GeForce Experience/NVIDIA Control Panel fighting over which app is trying to run the monitor settings better, but I would suggest updating the firmware then uninstalling it (at least at this point). You can adjust the settings from the OSD/monitor so the app really isn’t needed other than that or for the LED bar lights, which my settings stuck and I don’t think I will change from what I have. (Basically it doesnt seem like the firmware is too often so uninstalling and reinstall isn’t too bad, or I could just be unlucky not reaching smooth frames with the app with my system). Now to the sub negative, the support chat/line is very rude, and almost abysmal with help. I tried to contact them during those issues and either gave me snarky attitudes or barely gave me any answers (told me to reset the monitor because they didn’t have an option to turn off the panel protect..??). Anyway, the MSI products themselves are very good, I used to buy EVGA for GPU but they unfortunately stopped and I have an MSI Motherboard and GPU, now monitor, which all have been going pretty strong. Since I have a 4090, 32GB RAM and an i9 12900k, I can get steady frames and refresh rate so keep that in mind if you have “lower end specs”. You should or may be able to get to smooth rates but would have to compromise graphical settings. (You can always half the refresh rate in Windows or control panel, but then you could just get a monitor for half the price without the “fancy” OLED)
Overall, I would highly recommend this monitor with the little tweaks you need to do before getting any further. Yes a bit annoying to get there but seems worth it now. Update the firmware, uninstall the gaming experience app after and restart then make sure GSync is enabled in the NVIDIA control panel which should help significantly. Hopefully this helps people decide a big purchase for something like this!
(I am not an AMD person at all so unfortunately I cannot help with that). Something’s might turn certain people off which I understand, I almost did for the panel protect forcing me to do it and the time it took me to figure out their app was causing drops in the fps, but with those tips and suggestions I feel it may be a little better for people to go forward with their decision. Sorry if I was all over the place, as I mentioned I’m not one to leave reviews. Stay safe everyone and good luck!
| Standing screen display size | 34 Inches |
|---|---|
| Screen Resolution | 3440x1440 |
| Max Screen Resolution | 3440 x 1440 |
